Inclusive Education: The Philippine Experience

Since I can't seem to get a copy of the full script of P.Noy's Inaugural Speech, might as well share my 10 years of special education practice in the area of Inclusive Education.

You can check out all the sites dealing with special education and they will tell you what it is, what it's not and what the Law mandates. You would even begin to realize how powerful or useless your profession is if you take the standpoint of a man who views the world in a compartmentalized knowledge, that is the lawyer.

Basically, inclusive education is allowing students of all abilities (and economic backgrounds) to partake in the education system that we know of. That 7:30 to 4:30 time-away-from-home schedule students like to dread but teachers love to hate.

Let me remind you about special needs education: SpEd cases has two poles, the gifted and the untrainable (from the viewpoint of purists, true-blooded educators).

Inclusive education is backed up philosophically, legally and historically by the following:

• The World Declaration on Education for All held in Jontien, Thailand in March 1990.
• The World Conference on Special Needs Education held in Salamanca, Spain on June 1994. This is also known as the Salamanca Declaration.
• The Agenda for Action of Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons (1993-2002)
• The Philippine Action Plan (1990-200) in Support of EFA
• Republic Act 7277, otherwise known as Magna Carta Disabled Persons enacted in July 1991.

Got it? If not please go back and review.

Since you are reading this now you are probably ready to learn some more tricks of the special needs trading.

Inclusion is a right, not a privelege for the select few according to the case of Oberti vs. Board of Education in Clementon School District. That case is from the foreign shore right? Let me share my observations now.

Inclusion here in the Philippines starts in the preschool and daycare centers. There are cutesy-itsy power lola's scattered all over the islands of the Philippines. Since they believe in "early training-headstart for us", they give us headaches. They insist on starting they're apo's in daycares and preschools at the age of 2. They enroll their little ones in K1 classes with a simple opt-in reason: saling-pusa. A classic case of inclusion my dear readers.This is a regular, normal, fine young mind who needs a lot of supervision, unable to tell when to poop and when to pee.

We now use another case and that is the case of the child with mental retardation. Unable to tell which is his left and right hand at the age of 7, he then is enrolled in K1 class for the same opt-in reason: saling-pusa. With the student's ability to take care of his needs in the classroom, he gets in. This is the reversed mode of the first example. Still falling under the inclusive education principle.

I assume these two examples are enough to give you the basis of inclusive education but I won't stop there since we believe in a scientific way of doing things.

Let us now go to the diagnosed and labelled sped child.

Much of the special education process begin with identification. Usually this is initiated by the parents, teachers and other significant others. Identification comes after assessment and evaluation which is usually done by several specialists in different domains of development and performance.

A psychologist may be interested and trained in the cognitive functioning of the child while the occupational therapist will most like be concerned with the child's daily living functioning. These are just some of the examples.

After coming up with a diagnosis comes the program conceptualization and planning. Programs to be created will obviously depend on the severity of the child's over-all functioning. A high functioning individual will definitely have a higher score for a less restrictive environment (LRE). This means he can have a more "normal" participation in the classroom compared to a more severe case of special needs.

What are the salient features of inclusive education?

First, inclusion means implementing and maintaining warm and accepting classroom communities that embrace diversity and honor differences. Second, inclusion means implementing a multi-level, multi-modality curriculum. Third, inclusion means preparing and supporting teachers to teach interactively. Fourth, inclusion means providing ongoing support for teachers in the classroom and breaking down barriers of professional isolations. Fifth, inclusion means involving parents in the planning process in meaningful ways.

What happens in the classrooms when inclusive education takes place?

From what I've seen, if the class is given the time to prepare for the special needs students, in the areas of knowledge and emotional involvement, a warm and accepting atmosphere is seen. Adjustment of the class and the special child is smooth. 

If on the other hand nothing and no one prepares the class, the school, the teachers and the parents to the inclusive system, expect complains coming from all directions. From the teachers, classmates, parents and other school staff. You definitely do not want this!

Special schools in the last 10 years have helped so much in bridging the transition of the child from their schools to regular classrooms. Sadly, much of what the system can give or do to the child also depends on the financial resources of the child's parents.

Trust me when I say that inclusive education is one of the best inventions in special education. It is the best way to go through the normalization process of the student.

Before I end this post (chopsuey post!) let me ask this to you, were you once a saling-pusa in the class?

Until then!

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